Tonecaster - Posted - 01/26/2012:  15:42:57

Just found a Great Lakes Special banjo. It was made in 1977. It started life in Ann Arbor and after 35 years is only about an hour away. That's two Great Lakes in two months after a wait of 36 years ... problem is  ... I sound the same on them all ... the wife noticed. :)

Edited by - Tonecaster on 01/26/2012 15:45:36

rb4player - Posted - 01/26/2012:  15:46:25

Congrats. Very Nice! Opted for an Ome in 1975 or I'd have owned one myself.

Jim

drjack - Posted - 01/26/2012:  15:54:11

I had a Great Lakes "Bill Keith" special. It was an excellent banjo.  Soon after I bought it they changed the name of this model and made their "Bill Keith" model a top tension. Mine had a fleur de lys in the peg head and a star at the 5th fret.

J

banjoy - Posted - 01/26/2012:  16:06:10

Excellent find!! I've always admired those banjos. Where did you find it??

Alex Z - Posted - 01/26/2012:  16:52:13

This one looks really nice.  Quite a find.

Only 8 or 9 more to go, then you'll have a complete "place setting" with each Great Lakes model.  

Tonecaster - Posted - 01/26/2012:  16:52:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by banjoy

Excellent find!! I've always admired those banjos. Where did you find it??

---

France. :)  My friend Mark Zimmerman, who was at Great Lakes at the time, said it was a "Special" with a simpler dot inlay that was probably ordered that way. It needs a little bit of detail work and set up but after a few hours of playing it started to come to life. :)

Tonecaster - Posted - 01/26/2012:  16:54:17

Alex, my wife asked me in a very nice way if I was done ... I told her yes. :)

banjoy - Posted - 01/26/2012:  17:02:53

Cool thanks. this is a nice example of fine craftsmanship back in the 1970s. If I remember right I think Bill Keith used to / still does hang around a lot in France, so maybe there's some back story there. I'll bet your could contact Bill and ask. Questions and emails are cheap LOL and it'd be cool if there's some connection to that banjo ending up in France...

frailin - Posted - 01/26/2012:  17:16:17

Wow.  Lucky you.  

Tonecaster - Posted - 01/26/2012:  18:12:03

One banjo since 1980 and two more since November ... strange ... I think I'm reliving my youth.

Edited by - Tonecaster on 01/26/2012 18:12:38

mainejohn - Posted - 01/27/2012:  05:18:29

My GL catalog dated Jan 15, 1975, shows a list price of $950 (about $200 more than I paid in '74 for a new RB250)

Edited by - mainejohn on 01/27/2012 05:18:50

Tonecaster - Posted - 01/27/2012:  06:39:11

Yes, one of the reasons I didn't get one back in the 70's was I couldn't afford it. :)

Tonecaster - Posted - 02/01/2012:  12:35:59

Just a nice picture of a few Great Lakes banjos from the mid-70's.

harveydixon - Posted - 02/28/2012:  06:21:38

I interviewed to work for Great Lakes Banjo in 1975. They had me rough out a neck and hired me. Unfortunately while waiting to hear from them I decided on a new career path. Very nice people if my memory serves. I have used a head design on my banjos that resembles theirs.

frailin - Posted - 02/28/2012:  06:29:29

A lot of us were in that boat back then.  

Tonecaster - Posted - 02/28/2012:  10:44:15

I'm dropping off the banjo for Mark Zimmerman tomorrow. The fret board has been thinned and the original inlays and binding are gone.  I asked Mark if he was up to the repair:

"Yep I have a set of inlays (at least last time I looked I did) and I think what I would do for the f'board is use something from GLBC original stock.  I might even have some 1975 vintage grained ivoroid binding on hand.  This wouldn't be a speedy repair but would be fun."

I'll post some pictures when finished. :)

Russ

frailin - Posted - 02/28/2012:  10:45:16

Sweet!!

banjowannabe - Posted - 02/28/2012:  19:02:21

Cool.  I always keep an eye out for a Great Lakes.  Used to go down to their shop at the north end of Main Street just to look at the instruments.  Used to jam with Mark Grube who lived around the corner from me and did inlay and shaping stuff at the shop.  Mike Smith, who I think was a part owner, is still around Ann Arbor and has resurrected (if it ever died) his band, the Cadillac Cowboys.  Bought my first banjo ( a Fairbanks & Cole) from Dennis Lake also a part owner.  I know Mark Zimmerman's name, but I can't place him.  The search continues.

Mark-o - Posted - 02/29/2012:  14:33:32

Howdy -



Thought y'all might be curious to know what Dennis Lake of Great Lake Banjos is up to now. He and his wife live on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he makes exceptional `ukulele and guitars under the name "Po Mahina."



I have a couple of his instruments -- and Island Jazz Ukulele and Deluxe guitar -- and they are outstanding. But then, anyone who knows Great Lake Banjos would expect nothing but the highest quality work from Dennis. That's the Deluxe I'm holding in my photo. Snazzy guitar, let me tell you.



He is a sweet guy and a good friend, so drop by his website and say "hi."



konaweb.com/mahina/

Edited by - Mark-o on 02/29/2012 14:37:16

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/01/2012:  08:27:06

Mark and Dennis did some repair work for the store I work at over the years and I remember Dennis having a love for old tenor guitars too! Mark has done a lot of guitar work for me over the years. Both are great guys and very skilled at their craft.

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/02/2012:  11:01:22

Progress on the new fret board. It is really helpful to know the builder of a 35 year old banjo who still has replacement stock from the mid 70's! :)

lethegoodtimesroll - Posted - 03/02/2012:  23:36:29

I know where there is a Bill Keith model just sitting a closet gathering dust.

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/03/2012:  07:00:36

I say get it if you can. I know of a few in closets as well ... but the owners seem content to keep them there! :)

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/07/2012:  18:37:06

New fret board progress. Fret removal as well as neck lag bolts had been plugged and re-drilled to account for thinner fret board thickness. :)

JAFO - Posted - 03/07/2012:  19:10:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by lethegoodtimesroll

I know where there is a Bill Keith model just sitting a closet gathering dust.

---

What's it worth to him/her? I don't know if Bill has one of those anymore, but I'm sure he'd get a kick out of seeing another one.

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/09/2012:  18:31:03

Old fret board off.

eugene1978 - Posted - 03/09/2012:  18:44:08

This is so cool...

myfavefive - Posted - 03/10/2012:  16:05:43

I saw an old buddy at a festival a few weeks ago who's kept his top tension Great Lakes banjo since the 70s and we pulled it out & played it.  First, that is the heaviest banjo I've every picked up. He said it weighed 14 pounds.  Second, it had a really nice tone to it that I wouldn't have expected from a top tension.  They're very well made, beautiful banjos and this one sounded great!

alprice - Posted - 03/10/2012:  16:22:19

quote:

---

Originally posted by myfavefive

I saw an old buddy at a festival a few weeks ago who's kept his top tension Great Lakes banjo since the 70s and we pulled it out & played it.  First, that is the heaviest banjo I've every picked up. He said it weighed 14 pounds.  Second, it had a really nice tone to it that I wouldn't have expected from a top tension.  They're very well made, beautiful banjos and this one sounded great!

---

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/10/2012:  18:11:43

My friend Mark Zimmerman says: 

"F'board shaped & ready for inlays...time for beer."

One piece of Great Lakes Banjo history is on its way to being as "Good As New!" 

Edited by - Tonecaster on 03/10/2012 18:16:13

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/11/2012:  10:08:58

The Great Lakes Elite Top Tension is a great banjo and very heavy. Check out the pictures that Alex Zakem has on the hangout. The castings and top tension parts add weight and tone as well. :)

banjohangout.org/myhangout/pho...umid=2216

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/11/2012:  16:24:43

New fret board prepped and glued!

JIMBO53 - Posted - 03/12/2012:  05:25:40

Was the Van Eps style tension hoop standard on the "Special" model, or was it an option or one-off?

banjoy - Posted - 03/12/2012:  05:55:19

Very cool thread. Very cool. I'm enjoying the heck out of this. Boy I'd love to see one of those banjos for real. When I started picking banjo in the late 1970s all those photos of Bill Keith picking those banjos kind of like became an icon in my mind. When I finally got around to writing Great Lakes Banjo Co (yeah, in the days before email and cell phones!) they had stopped production :(

Picking one is on my bucket list. Owning one would be beyond the list, into heavenly LOL.

Thanks for a great thread.

Edited by - banjoy on 03/12/2012 05:56:11

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/12/2012:  08:21:11

quote:

---

Originally posted by JIMBO53

Was the Van Eps style tension hoop standard on the "Special" model, or was it an option or one-off?

---

I've seen a few of the later ones with the hoop. I'll ask Mark and see what he says. The banjos did change somewhat over  the years. The inlay pattern that Mark is using for my banjo was on later GL Special banjos, earlier ones had a different inlay seen in the black and white picture on page one of this thread. Mark tells me that they never called the Special - the "Bill Keith Special" but it took on a life of its own. The same happened with the Blue Ribbon model when it was upgraded with the Rose head stock inlay it was still a Blue Ribbon model but gets called the Rose model all the time. 

Russ

Edited by - Tonecaster on 03/12/2012 08:23:32

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/12/2012:  08:59:39

Fret board on ...  time for inlays! :)

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/12/2012:  09:40:17

Mark Zimmerman writes:

The hoop was used on all later model banjos except top tension models - can't tell you exactly when we switched from notched to the side drilled holes but it was inspired by Van Eps in part, and also by a guy named Harry Lane in Savannah who built some mean looking (in a very good way) top tension banjos who used the equal spacing at the neck and tailpiece gaps of the hoop.  Did you notice that spacing on yours?  The space is double the dimension of the hook to hook space, I think.  In any case we were after a cleaner look and a hoop that was smoother to the touch.  I think we succeeded.

JIMBO53 - Posted - 03/12/2012:  10:41:36

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tonecaster

Mark Zimmerman writes:

The hoop was used on all later model banjos except top tension models - can't tell you exactly when we switched from notched to the side drilled holes but it was inspired by Van Eps in part, and also by a guy named Harry Lane in Savannah who built some mean looking (in a very good way) top tension banjos who used the equal spacing at the neck and tailpiece gaps of the hoop.  Did you notice that spacing on yours?  The space is double the dimension of the hook to hook space, I think.  In any case we were after a cleaner look and a hoop that was smoother to the touch.  I think we succeeded.

---

 Succeeded very well, Mark. I have a 1925 Washburn Lyon-Healy plectrum that has a Van Eps style hoop, and, if I were to ever be able to afford a custom made banjo, I would want this style of tension hoop. IMHO, a much cleaner look than the traditional notch or grooved hoops. Jason Romero uses this Van Eps style hoop romerobanjos.com/hardware.html and it looks very elegant in brass.

Edited by - JIMBO53 on 03/12/2012 10:54:38

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/12/2012:  11:10:30

Lane banjo link:

rhlane.net/TheArt/MusicalInstruments.aspx

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/19/2012:  13:14:26

Waiting ... inlays take a while. 

Edited by - Tonecaster on 03/19/2012 13:14:58

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/21/2012:  05:10:58

   Inlays routed for setting

Routed and set to inlay

Inlays in - now we wait

Epoxy, lampblack, ebony dust and voila!

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/22/2012:  05:05:45

Inlaid...on to binding and frets

Edited by - Tonecaster on 03/22/2012 05:06:38

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/29/2012:  18:41:17

Update from Mark Zimmerman.

Routed for binding.

Still routed!

One sided glued!

Edited by - Tonecaster on 03/29/2012 18:46:50

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/30/2012:  18:38:45

Binding on both sides!

Tonecaster - Posted - 03/31/2012:  18:58:58

Binding and side dots done...

Another view...

Frets fitted, a milestone! Time for beer.

aeroweenie - Posted - 04/01/2012:  11:55:25

Nice work, thanks for taking the time to take and post photos of this!

Tonecaster - Posted - 04/01/2012:  13:35:25

For me it is really nice to see the amount of work that goes into fret board and inlay work. Mark Zimmerman has been doing this work since the early 70's. My hope back then was to have a Great Lakes banjo and 35 years later I'll soon have the one I wanted. Will it make me the player I want to be? Probably not ... but that's part of the fun of playing. Our instruments do provide some inspiration, as do the great players and favorite songs, so I'll enjoy just sitting and picking knowing that he was able to make this fine banjo the way it was when it was new! :)

I'm glad Mark took the pictures of the progress and it's been fun posting them. I'm looking forward to the finished product.

Happy picking!

Russ Tkac

Tonecaster - Posted - 04/07/2012:  18:14:42

Ready for finish.

Another shot.

Now that is sweet! Getting real close. :)

Tonecaster - Posted - 04/18/2012:  10:52:36

I'm getting the neck from my buddy Randy who does finish and repair work for the store I work at tomorrow and will get it back to Mark Zimmerman. The banjo then will be ready for final assembly and set up and hopefully I'll have it done in a week or so. It should be killer. :)